


by your side

by kythen



Series: SASO2017 Bonus Round Fills [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Frenemies, Getting Together, M/M, SASO2017, baseball player!Daichi, basketball player!Kuroo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 19:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11169009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: Keep your friends close but your frenemies closer.





	by your side

**Author's Note:**

> > _Prompt: Childhood frenemies > lovers AU. Take that as you will._

The basketball club is using their side of the gym again.  
  
Daichi stalks across the gym, his shoulders squared and his hands balled up in fists as he stops before the captain of the basketball club. His shoes squeak on the polished wood floor irritably and the basketball captain breaks off mid-conversation to look at him. He smirks that damned smirk of his and Daichi has just had about enough of him.  
  
"Kuroo-san," he says civilly.  
  
"Sawamura-san," Kuroo says back just as coolly.  
  
"It's raining."  
  
"I am aware."  
  
"Then you should know that the baseball club uses this side of the gym when it rains."  
  
"I am also aware of that." Kuroo cocks an eyebrow at him, one hand on his waist and his weight resting on one leg. He has at least ten centimetres on Daichi and he uses that difference against him, looking down at him the best he can.  
  
Daichi stretches tall without actually tiptoeing and looks dead into Kuroo's eyes. "Then why are your basketball players here?"  
  
"Oh, give them a bit of time to get their warmups done. We'll return back to our side of the gym once we start playing."  
  
"And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Sit back and watch your basketball practice?"  
  
"Well," Kuroo says casually, "we certainly wouldn't mind that. Anyway, you baseball folks should take it easy from time to time."  
  
"We have a game next week!" Daichi thunders in Kuroo's face, taking a step forward and poking Kuroo in the chest. "And then it's the start of the tournament, which means back to back matches so we need all the practice we can get _now_ , Kuroo-san."  
  
"Are you sure you aren't working your guys too hard?" Kuroo grasps Daichi's hand and lowers the offending finger away from his chest. "You should know the importance of rest to an athlete, Sawamura-san."  
  
Daichi pulls his hand away and scowls at him. "Says the guy who's always overworking himself."  
  
Kuroo pinks slightly. "I've learnt my lesson so I'm trying to give you some good friendly advice here."  
  
"I don't need it. I know my limits unlike a certain someone."  
  
"You're so _stubborn_." Kuroo scowls back at him. "Don't come crying to me when your rank in class drops after the next test because all you've got is baseball on your mind."  
  
"You should watch out for yourself." Daichi crosses his arms and doesn't give in an inch. "Someone didn't do so well on their previous math test."  
  
"Captain!"  
  
The both of them jump at the interruption and Daichi turns to see a first year standing behind him, his eyes flicking nervously to Kuroo as he says, "We've finished our warmups."  
  
"Start on conditioning," Daichi tells him. "Do we have enough space for it?"  
  
Daichi looks around and he sees the basketball club on their side of the gym, keeping their drills within the boundary line split right down the middle. When he glances over at Kuroo, he sees him in conversation with his vice-captain which ends with Kuroo receiving a not-so-friendly punch to the arm.  
  
"Sorry, Sawamura," the basketball vice-captain says cheerily, "I'll get this stray cat under control now."  
  
He tows Kuroo off to their side of the gym and Daichi's eyes linger on Kuroo for a brief moment, taking in the chastened slouch of Kuroo's shoulders and the droop of his head as his vice-captain pulls him by the shirt. He bites back a sudden smile as he thinks of how apt the metaphor is. A stray cat indeed.  
  


\---  


  
Daichi sees Kuroo fall in the corner of his eye and when he whips around there is a crumpled heap of red and black on the gym floor. Kuroo's face goes white, his hands reaching for his ankle, the basketball that had been in his hands bouncing away from him.  
  
He isn't supposed to be on their side of the gym but Daichi finds himself yanking up the netted wall dividing the baseball club from the basketball club and making a dash for Kuroo.  
  
"What happened?" Daichi asks the nearest basketball player as he slides to his knees by Kuroo's side.  
  
"W-we collided and then Kuroo-san fell on his foot wrongly," the player blubbers. "I heard something crack!"  
  
"We need to get him to the infirmary," the basketball vice-captain says grimly. "We've got people running to go get the nurse."  
  
"Can none of you bring him there?" Daichi demands, his hands already reaching for Kuroo.  
  
"Oh, Sawamura, my saviour," Kuroo murmurs from the floor, his face strained even as he says that. "Don't you have practice to be getting to?"  
  
"You basketball types seem to like disrupting our practice," Daichi replies, peeling Kuroo's hands off his ankle and feeling gently around it. It is starting to swell and the other player's account of Kuroo's fall worries him.  
  
"We're staying on our side of the gym this time like the good boys we are."  
  
"Not good enough." Daichi shakes his head and glances around. "Come on, get up. I'm taking you there."  
  
The vice-captain touches his shoulder. "Sawamura-san, leave him to us— _oh my_."  
  
Daichi lifts Kuroo as gently as he can but he still hears Kuroo hiss against his chest, his face red with mortification as Daichi hefts him in his arms, princess-style. He wiggles like a fish, trying to get back down on the floor, but Daichi only tightens his grip on him and starts towards the entrance of the gym.  
  
"I'm never going to live this down," Kuroo mumbles, pressing his face against Daichi's chest. "But at least this is nice."  
  
"What?" Daichi flushes as he hurries through the school corridor with Kuroo in his arms.  
  
"Nothing. I said I'm in terrible pain so you better hurry up before I go into the light."  
  


\---  


  
They lose.  
  
They've been working so hard all this time and they still lose.  
  
Daichi knows that this is the way the world works, that they can't all be winners at the top, that you can put in so much effort and still have it all come to a screeching stop by another team who puts in just as much, or more, or less effort.  
  
He knows this but he is eighteen and young and all his life up from childhood has just been about baseball and he thinks, _it's just not fair._  
  
His team has left, leaving him behind when he told them that he would catch up once, twice, thrice before they finally got the message. He sits in their empty locker room, the stench of sweat and gym clothes mixing with the intensely sweet scent of deodorant.  
  
He feels sick. He feels like crying and he has cried, holding it all back until the last of his teammates left the locker room. He doesn't want any of them walking back in and seeing him like this, hunched over on a bench with his towel over his head, the tear tracks on his face still fresh.  
  
"Sawamura—" The door bursts open and Daichi jerks up on instinct, sees Kuroo standing in the doorway and then whips his face away. Kuroo is the last person he wants to see him like this. This _sucks_.  
  
The light in the locker room goes off and Kuroo shuts the door behind him as he says quietly, "Sorry."  
  
Daichi doesn't say a word as Kuroo comes to sit down beside him, keeping a good distance between them as he drops onto the bench. There is silence for a while and Daichi thinks that maybe this is one of the rare times Kuroo won't want to talk when Kuroo says conversationally, "You know, you played well. You and your team."  
  
That pulls a harsh bark of laughter from Daichi's throat. "Not well enough."  
  
"You lose some, you win some." Daichi can almost hear the shrug in Kuroo's voice. "That's life."  
  
"For you, maybe." Daichi turns on Kuroo and suddenly he doesn't care if Kuroo can see that his eyes are red-rimmed from crying or that his nose is starting to run unattractively. "We can't all move on whenever we feel like it."  
  
Kuroo's mouth twists. "You're still mad about that."  
  
Daichi rubs at his eyes angrily and Kuroo blurs in his vision. "I thought you'd go into baseball in high school after you got better again. Not _basketball_. You liked it even more than me when we were kids. Enough to near-kill your elbow doing all those pitches."  
  
"It just wasn't for me. Baseball was always your sport."  
  
"I lost," Daichi says bitterly.  
  
"Move on. Try again in university. Try new things in university. You're only eighteen, Daichi. You have the whole world at your fingertips."  
  
"You make it sound so easy." Daichi's head suddenly feels too heavy. He is tired, his uniform still stinks of mud and sweat, and he just played a full nine innings. He leans towards Kuroo, crossing the short distance between them to rest his head against his shoulder.  
  
"It isn't," Kuroo admits and he doesn't move away, even though Daichi is probably getting dirt all over his clothes.  
  
"You lost too," Daichi says, just to be mean, digging his head into Kuroo's shoulder. "I saw your last match."  
  
"Way to rub salt into the wound." Kuroo rolls his eyes and wraps his hand around Daichi's, his touch first tentative then braver when Daichi squeezes his hand back.  
  
"Then maybe you shouldn't have come here."  
  
"Then you wouldn't have a shoulder to cry on, loser— _ouch!_ "  
  


\---  


  
It is their first day at university and there is so much to see at the student life fair. Different clubs and societies try to grab his attention as he walks past their booths and Daichi fends off the ones he isn't interested in with polite smiles and well-timed dodges.  
  
He misses one and a hand snakes into his pocket, pulling him sideways into a warm body. Up close, Kuroo grins back at him as he wraps an arm around his waist and shoves a flyer into Daichi's face.  
  
"Volleyball?" Daichi asks, scanning the flyer with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"It's something new," Kuroo says. "You've never played volleyball and neither have I. So what do you say? Want to give it a try with me?"  
  
"You're not going to back out on this on me again, are you?" Daichi takes the flyer sceptically.  
  
"I'll make sure to give you prior warning."  
  
"And I'll make sure to give you prior warning when I evict your ass from our apartment."  
  
"You'll miss my ass." Kuroo leers at him.  
  
"Don't push your luck, flat-ass." Daichi meets his leer with a grin of his own before shoving Kuroo's face away. "So? When and where are tryouts?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Find me here: [tumblr](http://kythen.tumblr.com) / [twitter](http://twitter.com/catcrowcalls)


End file.
